Docker Machine Overview

Estimated reading time:
4 minutes

You can use Docker Machine to:

Install and run Docker on Mac or Windows

Provision and manage multiple remote Docker hosts

Provision Swarm clusters

What is Docker Machine?

Docker Machine is a tool that lets you install Docker Engine on virtual hosts,
and manage the hosts with docker-machine commands. You can use Machine to
create Docker hosts on your local Mac or Windows box, on your company network,
in your data center, or on cloud providers like Azure, AWS, or Digital Ocean.

Using docker-machine commands, you can start, inspect, stop, and restart a
managed host, upgrade the Docker client and daemon, and configure a Docker
client to talk to your host.

Point the Machine CLI at a running, managed host, and you can run docker
commands directly on that host. For example, run docker-machine env default to
point to a host called default, follow on-screen instructions to complete
env setup, and run docker ps, docker run hello-world, and so forth.

Machine was the only way to run Docker on Mac or Windows previous to Docker
v1.12. Starting with the beta program and Docker v1.12, Docker for
Mac and Docker for
Windows are available as native apps and the
better choice for this use case on newer desktops and laptops. We encourage you
to try out these new apps. The installers for Docker for Mac and Docker for
Windows include Docker Machine, along with Docker Compose.

If you aren’t sure where to begin, see Get Started with Docker,
which guides you through a brief end-to-end tutorial on Docker.

Why should I use it?

Docker Machine enables you to provision multiple remote Docker hosts on various
flavors of Linux.

Additionally, Machine allows you to run Docker on older Mac or Windows systems,
as described in the previous topic.

Docker Machine has these two broad use cases.

I have an older desktop system and want to run Docker on Mac or Windows

If you work primarily on an older Mac or Windows laptop or desktop that doesn’t meet the requirements for the new Docker for Mac and Docker for Windows apps, then you need Docker Machine run Docker Engine locally. Installing Docker Machine on a Mac or Windows box with the Docker Toolbox installer provisions a local virtual machine with Docker Engine, gives you the ability to connect it, and run docker commands.

I want to provision Docker hosts on remote systems

Docker Engine runs natively on Linux systems. If you have a Linux box as your
primary system, and want to run docker commands, all you need to do is
download and install Docker Engine. However, if you want an efficient way to
provision multiple Docker hosts on a network, in the cloud or even locally,
you need Docker Machine.

Whether your primary system is Mac, Windows, or Linux, you can install Docker
Machine on it and use docker-machine commands to provision and manage large
numbers of Docker hosts. It automatically creates hosts, installs Docker
Engine on them, then configures the docker clients. Each managed host
(“machine”) is the combination of a Docker host and a configured client.

What’s the difference between Docker Engine and Docker Machine?

When people say “Docker” they typically mean Docker Engine, the
client-server application made up of the Docker daemon, a REST API that
specifies interfaces for interacting with the daemon, and a command line
interface (CLI) client that talks to the daemon (through the REST API wrapper).
Docker Engine accepts docker commands from the CLI, such as
docker run <image>, docker ps to list running containers, docker image ls
to list images, and so on.

Docker Machine is a tool for provisioning and managing your Dockerized hosts
(hosts with Docker Engine on them). Typically, you install Docker Machine on
your local system. Docker Machine has its own command line client
docker-machine and the Docker Engine client, docker. You can use Machine to
install Docker Engine on one or more virtual systems. These virtual systems can
be local (as when you use Machine to install and run Docker Engine in VirtualBox
on Mac or Windows) or remote (as when you use Machine to provision Dockerized
hosts on cloud providers). The Dockerized hosts themselves can be thought of,
and are sometimes referred to as, managed “machines”.